The Fault in Our Tsars: The Provisional Government of Russia, 1917

The Fault in our Tsars

The Provisional Government of Russia, 1917

It is February 1917, and Russia is in chaos. Discontent with the oppressive Tsarist regime has been growing for years. Now, angry at the famines and deaths caused by Russia’s failures in WWI, the people has risen up, holding mass protests and strikes in the capital of Petrograd. The Tsar has abdicated in the face of the revolution, and the world’s biggest country has become leaderless in the middle of WWI. You, a group of prominent reformist leaders in Parliament, have declared yourselves the Provisional Government of Russia, and promise to hold elections for a Constitutional Assembly to decide Russia’s future in November.

This Government now contends with economic disaster and political attacks from all sides, amidst the collapse of much of the state, a lack of perceived legitimacy, and your own political divisions - all during the bloodiest war the world has ever seen. Against the odds, you must keep Russia from falling apart for eight months.

You stand at a juncture in history. Anyone would expect you to fail, for Russia to be overcome by forces from within, conquered by armies from without, or to simply dissolve into anarchy. If you succeed, however, you can turn Europe’s most autocratic empire into the largest and most free democracy the world has ever seen.

Sagar Tikoo

Chair

Sagar Tikoo is a fourth year in the College studying Economics and Molecular Engineering. Though born in India, he spent most of his life in the Michigan before moving to suburban New Jersey. Involved in Model UN since high school, Sagar staffed the Ad Hoc at ChoMUN his first year, chaired the Sikh Empire committee at ChoMUN XIX, served as CFO of ChoMUN last year, and has competed for the traveling team. Outside of Model UN, Sagar enjoys debate, playing his ukulele, and not turning in his bio to his USG on time. He hopes to pursue a career in finance and is very excited to chair once again.

Michael Lynch

Crisis Director

Michael is a second year majoring in Economics. He is usually from Atlanta, when not dealing with identity crises of being born in Massachusetts, growing up in Georgia, and living in Switzerland. His first UN experience was working at the US Mission to the UN, as a convenience store cashier. His hobbies include telling the same story about Russian history for the third time, reading too much fivethirtyeight.com, and doing unnecessary math (ever wonder what would happen if two people with the combined strength of North America and Europe played volleyball across the Atlantic?). At school, Michael can usually be found in whatever coffee shop he is studying in that week, the school newspaper’s office, wherever MUN stuff is happening, and occasionally his room when he finds the time to sleep. His fun facts are that he has more cousins than most months have days, and has spent over a hundred dollars on bagels in the past eight months. Michael previously staffed “It’s not Easy Being Green: The Presidential Campaign of Mir-Hossein Mousavi 2009,” and is happy to answer any questions about the committee, history, politics, or weirdly specific applied math at mtlynch@uchicago.edu.

Rohan Gandhi

Crisis Director

Rohan is a second year in the College, majoring in Germanic Studies and Economics. He is originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and annually insists that "this is our year" for Philly sports. This is Rohan's second year as a ChoMUN staffer, having been an AC for the Texas Revolution committee for ChoMUN XX. He is also a chair for Chicago's high school conference, MUNUC. Outside of MUN, you can find Rohan obsessively watching college football (ask him for his hot takes), playing Sporcle, and exploring the city.